Domestic crude oil output in January rose 10.8 per cent annually, while natural gas production dropped 6.3 per cent year-on-year. The domestic public sector and private refiners processed 8.7 per cent more crude oil in January against the same month previous year.
According to a data released by Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas, the natural gas output fell for the second straight month, declining 6.3 per cent to 4.35 billion cubic metre (4.64 billion cubic metre).
This drop was because Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) continued to produce less from its East Coast gas fields due to reservoir problems. RIL operated D6 field is one of the biggest gas field in the country. At present, the field produces about 54 mscmd of gas.
In January, the crude oil production increased by 10.8 per cent to 3.24 million tonne (2.9 mt). This increase was propelled by a surge in output from onshore fields including Cairn India's Rajasthan fields.
The output from onshore fields was up 36.9 per cent year-on-year to 1.44 mt.
Refinery Output
Domestic refiners processed 8.7 per cent more crude oil in January, against the same month last year. The refiners turned 15.23 mt of crude into products in January, according to the data.
Public sector refiner Indian Oil Corporation's output rose 9.4 per cent to 4.93 mt in January. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's output increased 21 per cent to 1.5 mt. Reliance Industries Ltd produced 3.37 mt of fuels, an increase of 10 per cent from the same month previous year.
Reliance does not share data for its second refinery in Jamnagar which is in SEZ.
The capacity utilisation by 17 public sector and two private sector refineries were 115.4 per cent in January.